


Da Capo al Segno

by Cactaceae28



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: Ficlet, Friendship, Gen, Nostalgia, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23376052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cactaceae28/pseuds/Cactaceae28
Summary: Temeraire is Toothless’ reincarnation, and Laurence is Hiccup’s and Astrid’s descendant.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, William Laurence & Temeraire
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Da Capo al Segno

The truly great races of dragons can tether themselves to the mortal world, return again and again after each death like the legendary phoenix. Few choose to do so, however; few find a reason to want to stay, after centuries move past one after another. But some do.

Toothless does, and so, Toothless is reborn again.

The problem is, memories can’t be properly understood without a frame of reference. In the egg, there came a point where he could remember and a point where he started to hear the outside world, but until his hatching there was no other sensory input; there had been no knowledge of colors, of nature or anything but himself. But when he comes to the outside world, when he is assaulted by endless blue, by the smell of salt and a stranger who frowns like he has responsibility for the world, he remembers all at once why he chose to return.

A few days later, when he’s finally able to make sense of his previous life, Toothless is at once elated and disappointed. There is no doubt, as there hadn’t been since his second hatching, that William Laurence is a member of Toothless’ claimed human lineage, but in those first days, all the reborn dragon can see is that William has Astrid’s sky-blue eyes, Astrid’s blond hair and very little to remind him of her husband. Even the way he moves resembles that of his foremother’s, the brisk efficiency of movement that comes with a body trained from a young age to know its limitations. And though he had cared for Astrid, she had never been his.

It is only later, by increments, that Toothless (Temeraire) starts looking deeper. William looks like his foremother, and certainly there’s much of her in his manner: he has Astrid’s patriotism and her loyalty, the same love for the land of their birth that Toothless didn’t and Temeraire doesn’t understand but that he has seen topple titans. Yet, for all of that, he begins to understand that William also has a heart Hiccup would have been proud of. He doesn’t have the breath-taking brilliance that characterized the chieftain’s son, but he is just as selfless. He has Hiccup’s drive, his courage, not just the one manifested in battle, but the quiet, immutable sort of courage that allows them to accept every blow life makes and find a way to move forward.

There is the same awe, a reflection of times long past, in his eyes when he looks up at him.

Unsurprisingly, it will only be after they leave the familiar cadence of the sea, and as further weeks go by in this new, gentler island, that he starts noticing the traits that are purely William’s. There’s, for lack of a better word, something smooth about his manner, a certain calm like a breeze on a summer day that Berk had erased from the dragon’s previous family long before he met them. William will sit and read for him and for all he likes to complain about mathematics, he is soon lost in the words in a way that would have been beyond Astrid’s patience or Hiccup’s need to create.

His captain is, nonetheless, stubborn enough for both of his ancestors, and Temeraire (Toothless) is glad for the recovered fin that came with this new body, because it was hard enough keeping Hiccup alive then, it’s even worse when his descendant would immolate himself in the altar of duty.

In the years to come, there will be hardships, just as trying as before. There will be victories just as great. Temeraire will watch William’s star raise and fall and raise brighter than before and will live to see him be vindicated by history (and he will stomp on the tiny spark of hurt that Hiccup was born too soon to have remained anything but a myth alongside Siegfried and Beowulf, his very existence contested by the so-called experts of this time).

Time passes. Temeraire leaves Parliament once others are ready to take his cause. He takes four more riders, from William’s niece to her great-grandson, before he decides his bones are too old and and his wings have become too fragile to fly.

“Will I see you again?” Ning asks in one of their last conversations.

The old dragon grunts and scoffs. Shall he repeat the circle once again? Above him the stars glitter with secret promise. He can hear Hiccup’s whooping and see William’s soft smiles; a part of him longs to join them for good after his time on this life ends. Still… how will the world develop in the years ahead? Who else, wide-eyed and in need for a friend, is waiting for him in the future-to-come? Is it right to make his dearest friends wait a bit longer?

Looking at the stars, he knows what their answer would be if they were here.

So Temeraire makes a choice and Temeraire will be reborn again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :)


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